Lost in Translation S:0 Ep:1
by Lina Cross
Summary: Lieutenant MJ Cooper is brought to Atlantis and Elizabeth suggests she go along with Sheppard's team to decode some ancient panels. The mission is simple - then, as always, things get complicated. With the team trapped and Sheppard unconscious, Cooper has to abandon her fear of failure and free her new friends.
1. Chapter 1

_New story, now that I'm part of the Stargate: Atlantis fandom. Might not finish this, but I'm pretty far along now, so I thought I'd post it. Takes place shortly after Season 1, probably during Season 2._

**. . .**

The East dock was flooded with new recruits as a new Earth shipment came into Atlantis. The designated leader of the new soldiers stood aside from the hustle and bustle, speaking to Chuck the technician, whom Elizabeth had asked to oversee the delivery.

"Name," he said, looking down at his tablet.

"Lieutenant Mary Jane Cooper," she said officially.

"Intent."

"I am the senior officer of the new group of soldiers requested for the Atlantis expedition. Until they are given new directives, I am to control their assistance to the project."

"Any new products?" This was a routine task, admittedly boring, and he was supposed to keep himself distant in case problems arose. But he couldn't keep the hopeful tone out of his voice. He'd put in an order for the new power couplings recently discovered by the SGC and already had a million ideas for what to do with them.

Lieutenant Cooper tried to hide her amused grin. "We've brought some food supplies, weapons, and... a bit of new alien tech. You'll want to check with the quartermaster on the Daedalus for a full report."

Chuck nodded, but couldn't help the thrill going through him. "Anything to declare?"

"Ah, yes, the SGC would like it to be said that the Daedalus is not to be used for joy rides." She shrugged at him and he grinned. Both knew of the recent mishap involving the spacecraft and Colonel Caldwell, Cooper having read the report and Chuck having experienced it.

He shook his head. "Duly noted. Shall I take you to see Dr. Weir for a full briefing?"

"That would be much appreciated, sir."

He grinned to himself as he turned to lead her. He was just a scientist, but these military types were trained to be polite as possible and sometimes he felt it gratifying to have people who could kill him with their pinkies calling him "sir."

. . .

"McKay," Sheppard called, entering the labs. He looked around with a frown, seeing only a few scientists engrossed in their work, none of which being the loud-mouthed hypochondriac. "McKay?"

"Yes, yes, I'm right here, quit your squawking," Rodney said irritably, walking into the room with Dr. Zelenka hot on his tail.

"I've just explained it to you, Rodney, the ZPM won't generate enough power for one jumper, much less five. What you're asking is-"

"Not impossible, Zelenka, trust me, I know what I'm doing."

"No, no, I don't think you do, there is nothing in our reach that will generate enough power, you'd need-"

"Twice what we're currently generating, I know, but maybe we don't actually need more power, maybe we just need a way to transfer it from one side to the other."

Zelenka stared at him. "We have nothing that can do that at the speed you're talking about."

"Oh, don't be such a wet blanket, how many times have you told me I can't do something and then I did it, huh? Who's the certified genius in here? Who's done the impossible more times than I can count? Oh, right, that's me."

"No need to get nasty," Sheppard said, seeing the Czech scientist heating up. "I'm sure you'll figure out a solution for... whatever it is you're working on."

"See? Even the Colonel understands," Rodney said pointedly, and Sheppard was fully aware that this wasn't a compliment. Zelenka threw his hands up and stormed away, muttering to himself in Czech as the other scientists watched nervously. Rodney turned to a panel of computers and other devices, snapping his fingers. "What do you want, Colonel, I've got a millions things to do and a lot of incompetent people doing them."

"The Daedalus shipment came in today. I thought you might want to know," he said evenly, already getting tired of McKay's attitude. "But if you're too busy, I can always bring it-"

"No, no, no, don't even think about touching that equipment, I'll be right there," the scientist said quickly, instantly abandoning his work station. "This could be it. If those halfwits shipped what I ordered, this could be the answer to the jumper..." His voice faded as he hurtled down the hallway, leaving Sheppard standing, rather miffed, in the lab.

He looked over at a timid looking Chinese woman and gave an apologetic smile. "Fun times, huh?"

"Not always," Zelenka said, appearing in the room again, this time armed with a tablet.

"Oh, hey, Zelenka, I've been meaning to ask you about something," the colonel said, moving to stand next to Radek as he worked. "Those tablets, have you gotten anything out of them yet?"

Zelenka pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and shook his head. "No, sorry, Colonel. There's been so much work to do here, Elizabeth and I haven't found the time to go over them together. And I have a feeling we might have a better time of it if we saw them in person."

Sheppard sighed, slightly disappointed. "Well, I know how much you hate going off-world, but-"

"No, I'm sorry, but even if that was my only problem, I would still be unable to leave here," he said, genuinely apologetic. "Rodney has about eighty-seven different projects going right now and most of them are important to the city's main functions. We just don't have the time to spare for stone tablets on an uninhabited planet."

The Colonel gave a wry smile. "Ah, well. Worth a shot. Let me know if you get the chance, alright?"

"You'll be the first to know." Then, as Sheppard was taking his leave, he looked up again. "If you don't mind me asking, Colonel, why are you so interested in this, of all things?"

Sheppard thought for a moment, then shrugged. "I don't know. Something just felt weird about them, you know?"

"We're in a different galaxy, Colonel. Everything is bound to feel weird."

He nodded. "I know. Which is why I generally pay attention when things are weirded than usual. I'll let you get back to it, Elizabeth wants to see me."


	2. Chapter 2

Sheppard walked up to Dr. Weir's office doorway, knocking on the frame. She looked up from her desk, smiled, and invited him to come in. "I'm guessing from the smile that I'm not in trouble," he said, stepping inside.

"No, not today." She stood and came around the desk, her posture relaxed. So nothing was wrong. "I wanted to talk to you about your team."

"Yeah?"

"Specifically, adding Lieutenant Cooper."

He frowned. "The girl who just arrived on the Daedalus with all those trainees?"

She nodded. "Glad to see you're keeping up with the head count."

He tried not to make a face. "No offense, Elizabeth, but that's not really necessary. I mean, don't you think we have enough combat-trained people on the team?"

"With all the situations you get yourself into? That's debatable," she said. "But I'm not bringing her on for that. Lieutenant Cooper is also a linguist. I figured, now that we've realized the further out in the galaxy we go, the more the language changes, it might be useful to have a translator with you."

"I highly doubt she's fluent in the native languages of Pegasus," he said.

"No, but she did study as a linguist and she assisted Dr. Daniel Jackson for a time at SGC. The languages of Pegasus should all have common roots, as the Wraith and Ancient languages do, and she can bridge the gaps. She's been known to do so quickly on several accounts."

"And you think this will help our efficiency?" he asked.

She nodded. "I do. And I'd like to not use up so much time translating like we have been."

He shrugged. "Well, it's up to you, but I don't see how it could hurt. Should we take her back to M7X-638 as a test run? See if she can get anything out of those tablets?"

At this, Elizabeth smiled slightly. "Yes, I've been told you were getting hung up on that. It's a fairly harmless planet, I think it'll be good for her first mission."

He smiled back and nodded. "Then let me go make her feel at home."

"I was hoping you'd say that."

. . .

"Is this some kind of briefing?" Ronon asked, looking at the others sitting at the lunch table.

Teyla gave a half shrug. "If it were a briefing, we would have met in the designated briefing room. In my memory, Colonel Sheppard has never called for a meeting in so casual a place."

"Yes, well, it would be really nice if he would tell us what this is all about," Rodney said irritably. "If it's not important, then I should be getting back to work, I already told him this morning that I don't have time for-"

"Relax, Rodney, take a break for once," Sheppard said, approaching the table with a tray of food in his hands and a girl in fatigues at his side. "The world's not ending for once, I think you can manage a few minutes out of the lab."

"Ha, yeah, good one. For all you know, you're putting the security of the entire city at risk just because you want to introduce us to your new girlfriend."

"Rodney," Teyla admonished.

"She's not my girlfriend, McGrumpy," he said calmly, sitting down and motioning for the girl to do the same. "This is Lieutenant Mary Jane Cooper."

"Ah, MJ, actually," she said quickly. She gave everyone a swift, apologetic smile. "My parents were hippies."

Sheppard nodded with an amused smirk. "MJ, then. Dr. Weir has asked that we take her on as part of the team for translation purposes. I figured it might be nice to get to know each other before we all went off-world."

"Okay, great, then I don't have to be here," Rodney said, already getting to his feet. "I don't even care to know the names of my lab assistance, so as long as you can do your job, I'm-"

"Sit down, Rodney," Sheppard said, a slight warning tone in his voice. "Your experiments aren't going anywhere."

"Says you. Zelenka might-" He stopped, noticing the look in the colonel's eyes, and reluctantly sat. "Well, nothing wrong with refueling while I'm here."

"Please excuse Dr. McKay," Teyla said apologetically. "We are very happy that you are going to be with us on our missions."

Cooper, who had been looking at Rodney with some amount of offense, turned to the Athosian. "Thank you. You must be Teyla. I've gone over all of your reports, you seem like a tough nut to crack."

Teyla smiled. "I am pleased that you think so."

Sheppard smiled. This was exactly why Teyla had been the leader of her people. She was gentle, able to smooth over tension, and was an excellent judge of character. She probably had little idea on the meaning of Cooper's idiom, but she'd determined that it was a compliment and accepted it graciously.

Ronon was staring at the lieutenant, seeming to size her up from beneath his heavy brows. Sheppard tried to read him, but couldn't tell if the Satedan liked what he saw or was ready to make his disapproval known.

"She's young," he said finally. "Too young."

Cooper looked a bit taken aback. "I'm not too young," she said immediately. "I'm exactly as old as I should be."

They stared each other down for a long moment. Even Rodney stopped eating to watch nervously. If Ronon decided he didn't like the new recruit, they would be hard-pressed to convince him otherwise.

Finally, he nodded. "Okay," he said simply.

Cooper blinked, then leaned over to Sheppard and murmured, "I didn't know I had to get everyone's permission."

"You don't. It's just easier if they like you," he replied. "So, you've read all our files. Why don't you tell us about yourself?"

"Oh, great," Rodney said, rolling his eyes.

"You can go, Dr. McKay. I promise I won't hate you," she said tightly.

He needed no second invitation. "Not like I'd care if you did, I just needed your permission, or Sheppard would have shot me."

"I might _still_ shoot you," the colonel said.

"No you won't, too important, remember?" he said, cramming the rest of his sandwich into his mouth and tearing from the room.

Cooper sighed. "Anyway, I'm not sure what you want to hear. Compared to you guys, my record is pretty boring."

"Well, Dr. Weir told me you collaborated with Dr. Jackson, that's gotta be worth something," Sheppard said encouragingly. He looked at Teyla and Ronon. "Daniel Jackson was a part of the original expedition through the Stargate along with General O'Neill. He's one of the best damn archeologists on my entire planet."

"Yeah, so 'collaborated' really isn't the word," Cooper said. "He's not the demanding type, not like Dr. McKay, but all I did was follow his instructions. It was a great learning experience, though."

"Have you been through the Stargate many times?" Teyla asked.

She nodded. "I was on a relief team back on Earth. If back-up was called in, I was there."

"You must have been in a lot of combat," Ronon surmised.

"A lot, but not every time. Sometimes I was only on guard duty, set to watch some ruins or something while the actual expedition team ran off somewhere else on the planet."

Sheppard gave her a guilty smile. "We do that here, too. We make perfectly capable fighters babysit the jumper while we get ourselves killed."

She snorted. "Yeah. So you can kind of get the picture. Not much to know."

"Then I hope we'll be able to help you build an impressive resume," he said, taking a drink of water.

She nodded with a smile. "Thank you, Colonel."


	3. Chapter 3

He found her again after dinner. He was going out onto the main balcony, a favorite hang-out, and saw she'd already beaten him to it. "Hey," he said. "Great view, huh?"

She glanced at him, then back at the horizon, shaking her head. "I can't imagine getting up to see this every day," she said. "It's like something out of a movie. And when the light hits it like this, the city looks like it's made of glass."

He smiled, leaning on the railing next to her. "Now you see why it's more than just a research base."

"So much more," she agreed emphatically. "I mean, it's like the city is alive. She changes and compensates for whatever is happening externally, and... it's like she responds to my touch willingly. I feel incredibly at home here."

"You must have been born with the gene, then," he surmised. "Most of the others got the gene therapy, but they don't seem to have this kind of connection like you do."

"Do you feel this way?" she asked.

He looked out at the skyline, over the endless ocean. "Yeah. And, you know, sometimes it's frustrating. Sometimes I can tell there's a problem without really knowing why, but I'm no genius. I don't know how to fix the city if something's wrong. McKay always knows what to do, but Atlantis doesn't always respond to him like he'd want, and I like to think he gets jealous of me sometimes."

She grinned. "I don't think he likes me very much."

"I don't think McKay likes _anyone_ very much," he replied. "You'll get used to it. You won't like it, but you'll get used to it."

She nodded, but looked distracted. "You think I'll be good here?" she asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, there's a hell of a lot of stuff you guys do," she said. "And a lot of it has an effect on both our galaxies. I know you've read my file, Colonel. Do you think I'll be useful here?"

He frowned, feeling his gut twist slightly. "You're talking about the NI7 mission."

"It was one of the most important missions I've ever been on and it almost didn't turn out very well," she reminded him.

"I know, I read it. But from what I saw, you were pretty resourceful when it came down to it. I think you'll fit in just fine around here."

She swallowed and looked like she wanted to argue the point, but apparently decided against it. "Thanks, Colonel."

"No problem. You'd better rest up, our next mission is in the next couple days." He gave her a quick pat on the shoulder, then turned and left the balcony. She'd fit right in. Who among his team hadn't made some sort of mistake at some point on this expedition?

. . .

"Everything ready?" Sheppard asked, addressing his team as they prepared to go through the gate.

"Ready as I'll ever be, I suppose," Rodney said loudly, making sure everyone within earshot could tell he was unhappy with the day's activities.

Sheppard ignored him. "It's not a hard mission, guys. We'll go there, hopefully read the tablets, and come back with some new information. Good?"

Teyla and Ronon nodded, with an added, "Yes, sir," from Lieutenant Cooper. Sheppard felt this was sufficient acceptance, then saluted Elizabeth and stepped through the gate.

The others joined him on the world seconds later. For a moment, they looked around the area, keeping their hands on their weapons. Once it was determined that no danger was apparent, Teyla spoke up. "How much experience have you had with other languages, Lieutenant?"

"Um, more than most," she said vaguely as the team led her across the grassy plain. "I'm fluent in Latin and I can understand most cuneiform. I was one of those assisting Dr. Jackson when he was translating a form of Goa'uld. I've gone over as much of the Ancients' language as you've been able to provide and Elizabeth walked me through the differences between that and Wraith. If Ancient is the base language, I can probably figure this out."

"Oh, that's wonderful for you. So much credibility," Rodney said sarcastically.

"Rodney, be nice," Sheppard said warningly.

"The tablets are up ahead," Ronon announced. He gestured to a pile of tan rocks rising out of the grass, and as she got closer, Lieutenant Cooper realized they weren't rocks, but partially-crumbled panels. They were flat, but slightly angled, sort of like a DHD, and had their surfaces divided into different sections of strange writing. There were three panels in all, in a triangular formation.

She frowned, looking at the panels, then at the surrounding area.

"Something wrong?" Sheppard asked.

She shook her head. "No... I'm just wondering if these are hooked up to anything."

"I didn't get any energy readings last time, and I'm not getting any this time," Rodney said shortly.

"Maybe there's no power," Sheppard suggested. "Can you read any of that?"

She brushed her fingers along the symbols. "It'll take some time, but I think I recognize a few things already."

"Good. Then get started."


	4. Chapter 4

It had been hours since the beginning of the mission. Sheppard had checked in with Elizabeth a few times just to let her know they were still alive, and Ronon and Teyla had gone to scope out the land out of sheer boredom. Rodney kept taking different readings of things and occasionally calling out his findings. Lieutenant Cooper didn't pay attention, studiously cracking the code on the panels before her.

She liked her job in the military, but she was thrilled to have been brought specifically for this purpose. If she'd had the means, she might have become a scientist herself, but life and circumstance had gotten in the way. Here, she could pretend she was an archeologist like Dr. Jackson. She wondered, if she managed to do something important with this, if he would ever hear of it.

Then she frowned. She checked her translations again, shaking her head. Even if she had made a few mistakes, some things weren't adding up.

"Problem?" Sheppard asked, having looked over and noticed her expression.

"I don't know if this was the Ancients' style, but this is the most redundant thing I've ever seen," she said.

Rodney snorted. "Trust me, don't put redundancy past the Ancients. It wasn't one of their better qualities."

"But this is downright stupid," she said bluntly. "It just keeps repeating the same message over and over in varying ways."

"What do you mean?" Sheppard said, stepping closer.

"You know how in school, when you wrote a paper that needed to be a certain length, you filled it with fluff just to meet the word count?"

Rodney snorted piously. "Absolutely not."

"I remember," the colonel said, obviously losing some of his patience. "What about it?"

"It looks like that's what they were doing. The first line here basically says that technology was the heart of the Faloans, who must have inhabited this planet. But instead of explaining the point, it just keeps saying stuff like, 'The Faloans were born to engineer' and 'Their technology far surpassed that of other systems.'"

"So they had an ego. Wouldn't be the first time it happened to a smart guy," he said, looking at Rodney pointedly, who made a face in return.

"Yeah, but this doesn't make sense. Why build three panels like this just to inform people about your technology? And if it's so great, where is it?" She gestured around her, to the open, grassy plains and treeline a few yards away.

"Let's see if Teyla and Ronon found anything." He tapped his radio, turning away. "Hey, you guys see anything interesting out there?"

"No. This planet is full of nothing," came Ronon's blunt voice.

"Ronon is correct. We have not seen anything but trees and grass for miles, with nothing to interrupt it."

Sheppard made a face. "Alright, then, head on back. Cooper worked out the translation, but it's not exactly what we were looking for."

The lieutenant ran her hand along the stone, looking closely at the writing. "I think... this isn't what was originally here," she said slowly.

"What?" Rodney asked.

"There are grooves between some lines of text, but not others. I think, maybe, somebody tried to write over what already existed."

"And why would they do that?"

"I have no idea. But none of this array makes sense."

"Is there any way to find out what was on it before?" Sheppard asked.

She shook her head. "No, it's stone, not paper. Whoever did this did it well, so that you can't see what was there before."

"But you can't just erase stone carvings," Rodney protested. "The Ancients were pretty heavy-handed; even if someone managed to scratch out the letters there, you'd be left with a pretty deep indentation, which would be a dead giveaway that these had been tampered with."

"Which is another mystery," she sighed. She could hear Ronon and Teyla returning, their footsteps hissing in the grass. She continued to stare at the panels, crouching down to examine the sides in case she missed some writing somewhere. Then she saw something. A crack in the panel, like a seam, just below the surface. Biting her lip, she removed her survival knife from its holster and wedged it into the seam.

"What are you doing?" Rodney exclaimed.

"There's a... thing," she grunted, managing to get the knife far enough under the stone plate to prize it free. A three-line section of the panel came loose, and when she removed it, they could see different, shallower writing underneath.

"Well, what do ya know?" Sheppard said, patting Cooper on the back. "Let's get these panels apart. Teyla, Ronon: Knives."

For another several hours, the panels were dismantled (much to Rodney's discontent) and Cooper resumed her translation. Much more headway was being made now, but McKay continued with his line of questions.

"This just doesn't make sense, why would somebody want to cover up the writing? With something as unimaginative as this? Who's gonna be fooled?"

"Someone who didn't understand the language?" Ronon guessed. "Maybe whoever made the panels thought something unwelcome might come to use them."

"So even if they do manage to find a translation, they still won't get anything valuable," Sheppard said.

"But that just brings us right to the situation we're currently in," McKay said.

"I don't think so. You'd have to know what you were looking for," Ronon said. "The only reason we're still here is because the Colonel couldn't let it go."

"It is a hastily employed disguise," Teyla said. "Perhaps they were running out of time."

"So they hastily carved new directions into stone? I'm not buying it. Why not just completely destroy the panels if they were in that much of a rush?"

"Maybe they were planning on coming back," Sheppard suggested.

Just then, they heard sounds like stone scraping against stone. Sheppard whipped around to see Cooper pressing down on sections of writing like buttons. "Hey, hey, what are you doing?"

"It's a lock," she said, hitting two more buttons and moving to the next panel.

"And how did you figure that out?"

"Because the panel said it. It's directions for accessing this wonderful technology the Faloans were apparently so good at." She finished at the second panel and moved to the third.

Rodney was not to be outdone. "How can you just assume this will release the locking mechanism?" he demanded. "I told you, there's no power here."

"Do you need electricity to unlock your front door?" she shot back. She hit the final button, then stepped back.

Nothing happened.

"See? What'd I tell you?" he said with a self-satisfied smirk.

"Does the device need power?" Teyla asked.

"It shouldn't. It's just a locking mechanism," Cooper said, staring at the array in confusion. "Maybe I didn't-"

The rest of her sentence was lost to a massive grinding noise as the panels began moving away from each other. Stone tracks buried under a thin layer of topsoil revealed themselves.

"Move back!" Sheppard barked as the a large hole began to appear. The grinding lasted for a full five minutes, the panels inhibited by the overgrowth. A rush of excitement was shooting through the lieutenant; just wait until Daniel Jackson heard about this. Finally, they stopped, and there was silence.

"So," Sheppard said as they all leaned over the hole. "I vote McKay goes first."


	5. Chapter 5

As it happened, Sheppard ended up going first, yet McKay remained the only one complaining. Cooper dropped down into the hole, as the ladder ended a good foot above the floor, then switched on her flashlight and looked around.

"Oh, my god!" Rodney said in a hushed voice, his flashlight beam flitting from station to station. "Look at this! This is massive! It's incredible!"

It was huge, like an underground airplane hanger full of things Cooper couldn't have imagined if she wanted to. Equipment lined the walls, and only a few tech stations were in the middle, leaving plenty of room for scientists or soldiers, depending on what the room was used for. Passages led off to either side, meaning there could be an entire network under the surface of the planet.

"This explains why there was nothing up top," Ronon said, sounding mildly impressed.

"And why the Faloans tried to hide it," Teyla agreed.

"They must have had their entire city down here, hidden away so no one could find it. The Genii thought they were so clever, but it looks like they were just copycats," McKay said smugly, beginning to stutter with excitement. "I mean, look at all this! There - there must hundreds of devices in here, so well preserved, things we can use-"

"Dr. McKay!" Cooper interrupted, looking around. "Check for security programs first."

"Yeah, if they went to all the trouble of keeping this such a secret, we need to make sure they didn't want to blow up any intruders," Sheppard said.

Rodney seemed to deflate, looking annoyed. "Yes, fine, be a wet blanket before I even get started, way to go, Colonel."

Cooper stared at him, shaking her head. "How do you stand this, sir?" she asked quietly.

"Like I said, you get used to it."

"Lieutenant Cooper," Teyla called from one of the wall stations. "The writing seems to be echoed throughout this place. Perhaps more instructions for utilizing the equipment?"

Cooper walked over and shined her own flashlight on the words. After hours of translation, she could at least make out a few familiar words. "It does look like it." She made a face, looking around at the rest of the room. "Now I'm not even positive that this is actually a language."

"And the plot thickens," Sheppard said dryly.

"What else could it be?" Ronon asked.

"Not a language for communication, anyway," she said. "More like a... like a code. A user language. You have to know it to have the technology function correctly."

"Doesn't seem so hard to crack, though, as long as you know the base language," Sheppard said doubtfully. "If you could just read it, what's so hard about it? You opened the lock to the city easily enough."

Then the lieutenant smiled sheepishly. "Well, from what I could understand of the writing, it was pretty vague and... I may or may not have made a lot of lucky guesses when I was pushing buttons. Sir."

He gave her a look. "And what would have happened if you'd been wrong?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. I thought it would just reset itself, but now I'm thinking the consequences might have been a little more... explodey."

"Explodey?"

"Colonel, I think you should come look at this," Rodney called from where he stood looking at his tablet.

Sheppard shook his head. "We'll talk about this later," he said, walking over to the scientist. "What is it?"

"Well, the city looks like it was powered by something, but not a ZPM," he said, tilting the tablet so the colonel could see.

"An alternative power source?"

"Looks like it, but I'm not sure if it would be compatible with Atlantis. From what I can tell, the energy is largely external, probably coming in from the atmosphere, if it's not actually solar power."

"How green of them," Sheppard observed. "Why do I care?"

"Well if you'd be patient - I already told you that I wasn't getting any energy readings, so we figured the batteries in here must be dead. Why are they dead if the power source is external and renewable?"

The colonel frowned. "Are there access points?" he asked. "Like rechargeable batteries, where you have to plug them into a wall first, you can't just hold them up to the sun."

"That's the problem," Rodney said, tapping the screen to show a recently uploaded schematic of the city's layout. "I'm not seeing anywhere to recharge."

Sheppard stared at him, then shrugged. "I don't know what that means."

"Well, then cherish this moment, Colonel, because I don't know what it means, either."

Over in another corner, Ronon looked away from the two men and down at the lieutenant. She was examining a piece of equipment, though she looked as nonplussed as he did. "Hey," he said quietly, causing her to look up. "You have the gene, right? The Ancient one?"

She straightened up and nodded. "Yeah, they had me test it on some stuff back on Atlantis."

He gestured to something on the panel in front of him, where it seemed to him a hand would go. "Touch that."

She frowned. "There's no power. Even if it would work for me, there's nothing to make it go."

He blinked. "Humor me."

Not one to argue with the gargantuan Satedan, she placed her palm on the round surface. With an embarrassingly loud whirring sound, that panel and all the others lining the wall came to life.

"Why do you keep touching things?" Rodney shouted, sounding furious. "Colonel, I told you, this was a mistake! You can't bring green recruits onto our missions, the objectives are too important and the findings too delicate-"

"McKay!" Sheppard barked, staring around the room. "Didn't you just say there wasn't any power?"

The scientist froze mid-rant. "Yes."

"So why did all that stuff turn on?"

His jaw worked for a moment, then he babbled something incoherent, then the fingers started snapping. "Wait, wait, maybe it wasn't off, maybe it was asleep."

"Like a laptop?" Sheppard asked.

"This is hardly a laptop, Colonel, which is why the sleep function doesn't work the same. It must be another security measure. We didn't get any energy readings, so we assumed nothing was here, which would lead most people to just pass by, and I'm guessing that the Faloans thought their little lock disguise would have fooled everyone else, so the only likely people to come down here would be themselves. They had to have descended from the Ancients, which is why it wakes up to the touch of the familiar gene."

Lieutenant Cooper hadn't moved, simply staring at the two and feeling jittery. She swallowed. "Um... are you going to send me back to Earth, sir?" she asked.

"It was my idea that she touch it," Ronon supplied.

Rodney gave her an irritated look. "Well, I'm certainly thinking about it now, well done-"

"No," Sheppard interrupted. "We're not gonna send you back, Lieutenant, you can relax.

"Might I suggest that we return home with this new information?" Teyla said. "We have been gone long enough, and we now have substantial reason to send research teams."

"Good idea. Let's head back up to the surface and-" He never finished his sentence. The rumbling sound of the panels outside seemed amplified by the cavernous underground space, and then the exit closed. He sighed heavily. "Why did I know this was gonna happen?"

"Are we trapped here?" Cooper asked.

"Rodney..."

"I don't understand," the scientist said, tapping madly at his tablet. "If the city thought it was the Faloans, why did it-"

"I thought we told you to check the security protocols," Sheppard ground out, shining his flashlight in Rodney's face.

"I did check them, Colonel, and I thought I turned them off," he snapped, hitting the light away. "This shouldn't have happened, there's no reason for the system to react this way."

"Well, you've got plenty of time to figure it out, because we'll be stuck down here until you do."


	6. Chapter 6

The team had split up, Ronon with Teyla and Sheppard with Cooper while McKay remained in the main room working through data. They had agreed to find other exits, since an entire city couldn't have only one way out.

Copycatting aside, Sheppard was aware of how different the design of the Faloans' city was in comparison to the Genii's. Where one entrance overlooked the vast cavern housing the Genii's various buildings, this was more of a network of tunnels, lined with metal to keep the earth from caving in. It was a little like being in Atlantis, except without the sound of the ocean and with a lot less light.

He glanced at his lieutenant, her expression unreadable as she scanned the tunnel they were in. "How you holding up, Lieutenant?" he asked.

She looked at him, then back at the tunnel's ceiling. "Fine, sir."

"Well, I mean, it's your first mission with us. Seems to have gone swimmingly."

She let out a small sigh. "Yeah. I can see that."

He frowned. "This isn't your fault, Cooper."

"I put my hand on the panel, sir. I think we all know who triggered the lockdown."

"Cooper, come on," he said, stopping and taking her by the shoulder. "No one's blaming you. It's not like you knew this was gonna happen. I don't want you getting all guilty while we're trying to get out of here, okay? This isn't your fault."

She wouldn't look at him. "We have rations for a day, maybe two. Dr. Weir has probably figured out something's wrong by now, but even if she sends a team, they won't know we're down here. Their radios probably won't reach ours, and even if they manage to correctly translate the stones, I doubt the security protocol will let them open the entrance. We're stuck until we figure out a solution on our own."

"And we'll figure it out, I promise. You've read McKay's files, you know he can pull a solution out of his ass under enough pressure." He knew she wasn't convinced, but didn't know what else he could say to her. "This isn't gonna be a repeat of NI7, alright?"

She finally looked at him, right in the eye. "No, sir. No, it isn't."

He was slightly unnerved by the heat of her gaze, but could at least partially understand where she was coming from. "Good. Now let's see what this city has to offer us."

They wandered a little more, peering into rooms leading off from the hallway and finding very little that was useful. Most of the tech didn't turn on, and no exit doors were discovered.

"Maybe they just never went outside," Sheppard said glumly.

"So then what did they do for food?" Cooper asked. "They had to have gone outside for that, which means there should be more than one way to get out of here. It's a big place, you just have to be patient."

"I'm pretty bad at the whole 'patient' thing," he said as they entered a larger room, one with more corridors leading off in various directions. "Alright, then, looks like we've found one of the main hubs. Let's see what we can see."

"It'd be nice if we could get all the lights on," she said.

"Yeah, well, I've realized wishful thinking only gets me very far in a jumper." He walked up to a panel on the wall, inspecting the buttons. It was stone cold, but that didn't mean he couldn't turn it on. "This looks important."

"Be careful, sir. If the city thinks we're a threat, we don't know what it'll do," Cooper warned.

"Relax, Lieutenant, I'm just gonna see if it'll turn on." He put his hand on the surface, thinking about it turning on like he did for things in Atlantis. A small screen glowed blue for a moment, then agonizing pain ripped through his body.

"Colonel!" Cooper shouted, dropping to her knees when he hit the floor. His eyes were closed and he smelled faintly of burnt hair. "Colonel?" She shook him gently a few times, forced one eye open, then deemed he was well and truly unconscious, but still alive. She hit the button on her radio. "This is Lieutenant Cooper. Colonel Sheppard is down, I'm taking him back to the rendezvous."

"What happened?" came Teyla's voice.

"He touched a panel on the wall. I don't know what it was supposed to do, but I think this is another security measure," she said, putting Sheppard's arm over her shoulders and dragging him up.

"Understood. We will meet you there and not touch any of the equipment."

Cooper grunted under the weight of the colonel, then began slowly making her way back to Rodney and the main room.

. . .

Rodney gulped upon seeing the unconscious colonel. This state of weakness was not one he was fond of seeing in Sheppard, particularly because that was his friend and it also meant that whatever had taken him down could easily do the same to the scientist. "So the, uh, panel backfired, huh?" he asked nervously.

"Yeah," Cooper grunted, laying him down against the wall as gently as possible. "Any headway on your part?"

"Well, nothing yet. I was hoping maybe the hole closing wasn't a security measure, just something similar to a door closing and we just had to figure out how to open it from the inside. The latest... accident has blown that theory sky high."

"Is there anything we can do for him?" Teyla asked worriedly.

Cooper shook her head. "Not from what I can tell. We just have to wait for him to wake up."

"So what do we do now?" Ronon asked.

She looked at him. "Are you asking me?"

"Well, you are currently the ranking officer," Rodney reminded her. She instantly paled. He didn't envy her position in the slightest, but he'd expected a military officer to be more willing to take point.

"Okay," she said quietly, turning away to look around. "Dr. McKay, what exactly have you found so far?"

"Just a lot of code and encrypted material. I'm trying to work through it all, but it's using the same language as the stuff written all over. I _might_ need your help."

She nodded. "Sure. Anything else?"

He frowned, going over his data pad. "I don't know, I've been getting weird energy spikes from this area of the city ever since you turned the place on, but it's not very consistent. I'm worried there might be some sort of leak there."

"What's leaking?" Ronon asked.

"Water? Air? The power source? Who knows? Everything is set up all backwards in this place. It was a death trap from the beginning. No wonder they evacuated, this was a terrible idea, who wants to live underground-"

"Rodney," Teyla said firmly.

McKay, who's face had steadily been growing more red, stopped to take a few breaths. "Look, all I'm saying is that we have a potentially dangerous fuel leak in an eastern section. That, or something else, maybe something worse. With our luck, probably something worse."

"It's worth checking out," Cooper said. "Maybe if we can fix part of the city, it won't think of us as enemies."

"Oh, yes, because pulling a splinter out of a dragon's foot always seemed like a plausible friendship," McKay said bitingly.

Cooper ignored him with some difficulty. "Ronon, Teyla, I want you to go look at this leak. Try not to touch anything along the way. Just because you don't have the gene doesn't mean it won't try to harm you. I want you checking in every fifteen minutes so I know everything's okay."

"Yes, Lieutenant," Teyla said with a nod. Ronon followed quietly as she exited the room, going in the direction Rodney had indicated for them.

"I'd like you to not undermine my authority, Dr. McKay," Cooper said quietly.

He made a face. "You just said, 'maybe the city will like us if we help it.' Do you have any idea how childish that sounds?"

She took a step forward. "Childish or not, we need to be working together. You snapping at everyone isn't helping anything."

"That's what I do, Lieutenant, I snap at people. It helps me work faster. Snapping is the difference between getting out of here today, and getting out of here tomorrow. You can take your pick."

She gritted her teeth, but snatched the tablet out of his hand. "Fine. What do you need me to do?"


	7. Chapter 7

"Ma'am, it's been two and a half hours since Colonel Sheppard's last transmission," Chuck told Elizabeth when she exited her office.

She sighed heavily. "I know. Time to send someone after them again."

Zelenka, seated at a computer a few feet away, smiled slightly. "Still playing the same old song, Dr. Weir?" he said.

"Sometimes I think they just don't want to come home," she said wearily. "Send Major Lorne and his team. He hasn't had anything to do today."

. . .

Major Evan Lorne was the head of another off-world team on Atlantis. He was qualified, tough, and got the job done. Using Stargate Command's system, his team would, by all accounts, be considered SG2, second only to Colonel Sheppard's team. He felt no envy for this, mostly due to the fact that Sheppard's penchant for trouble allowed Lorne's team to see almost equally as much action.

"Alright, fan out," Lorne called, his heart sinking as he looked at the deserted area. Nothing lived on this planet except vegetation, and they were receiving only minimal energy signatures. He checked the Ancient device in his hand and grimaced. There were five other points of life besides his team, but they looked faint. He was afraid of what condition he might find them in, and at what his men might encounter looking for them. "Keep your guard up," he reminded them. As though they needed reminding.

They weren't searching long when he received a call on his radio. Lieutenant Masters had found some stone tables, probably the ones Sheppard had been so worked up about. Lorne followed the man's directions and frowned at what he saw.

There were the tablets, but they were in nowhere near the same condition they had been in the pictures. They'd been partially dismantled, pieces of stone pulled away, and the dirt around them had been upturned somehow. He'd been told Sheppard's team found a new way to translate the device, but he hadn't known it meant this. He sighed. "We're gonna need to contact Dr. Weir. Tell the others to stop searching."

Fifteen minutes and the Stargate was up while the major stood in front of it. "Dr. Weir, you're gonna have to send someone to translate these slabs."

He could almost hear her sigh. "That's what I sent Lieutenant Cooper for."

"And I'm assuming she did her job, ma'am, because they're nowhere to be found. The stones look a little busted up, though, which tells me wherever they went, it has something to do with the translation."

"Have they left the planet?" she asked.

"No, ma'am, and that's the other thing. I'm pretty sure they're underground."

"How far underground?"

"Pretty far. The Ancient device is having some trouble picking up their life signs."

"Alright, I'm sending Zelenka and Dr. Abram. She knows a thing or two about linguistics, but I'll warn you now, she's a little skittish."

Lorne resisted rolling his eyes, but it was difficult. "They all are," he muttered, tapping his earpiece as the Stargate closed.


	8. Chapter 8

Cooper sat on a stool at one of the tables, her eyes hurting as she stared at Rodney's tablet. He was over by another panel, dismantling its circuitry as he tried to disable certain functions manually. At this point, she probably clocked in at about ten hours of translating, and she was about sick of every symbol. On a few occasions, she'd fallen asleep, only to be roused by McKay's harsh tongue. Unfortunately, Sheppard still had yet to come out of his own slumber, which was increasingly worrying. They had a basic field med kit with them, but not to the caliber the colonel needed. Time was running out only because whatever happened to him might cause him to die.

"Oh, why don't you just go over there and hold his hand," Rodney snapped, looking over at her.

"What?" she said blankly, tearing her eyes away from the unconscious form.

"You're not doing anything useful anymore. You might as well get some rest so you can be useful later."

Without a word, she picked herself up from the stool and sat herself beside him. He was still breathing, and his pulse wasn't too weak, but he was pale and there was a slight sheen of sweat on his forehead. She removed her vest, then took off her jacket and placed it under his head. It wouldn't heal him, but it would at least make him more comfortable.

She wanted so badly to tell him how sorry she was, how she'd messed all of this up from the beginning. I have a habit of doing that, she wanted to say, when put in charge of anything. He should have known. He'd read her file, he'd known her history.

"Is he..." McKay cleared his throat. "Is he breathing okay? And everything?"

"Yeah," she said, voice rough.

She wasn't going to sleep, not like this. She moved to get up when there was a soft grunt next to her. Startled, she looked back. "Colonel Sheppard?"

Rodney's head snapped up. "Colonel?"

His eyes were blinking open, but they were bleary and unfocused. "What happened?" he mumbled, his words running together.

"You touched the panel, sir, and I think it electrocuted you. I told you not to touch it," Cooper said reproachfully.

"Yeah... I don't listen much."

She quickly grabbed a canteen and put it to his lips. "Drink this. Slowly."

He did as commanded, taking in a few mouthfuls of the water before she put it back down. "You okay?" he asked.

"Yes, sir, _I'm_ fine. How do you feel?"

"Everything hurts like hell." His eyes drifted shut, and, like someone had flipped a switch, he was unconscious.

She watched him for a moment, wanting to be absolutely sure. "He's out again," she said tightly.

"What?" The pale of Rodney's face could have rivaled that of the colonel's. "Oh, no. This really isn't good. Maybe he got a concussion when he hit the floor and now he has permanent brain damage. Maybe there's internal bleeding right now and he's just going to - to die before we get out of here, oh, god, this can't be happening."

"It _is_ happening, McKay," she said sharply, getting to her feet again. "Which is all the more reason to move fast. Ronon and Teyla will check in again any minute now. What about you? Can't you tell the system that we're friendly?"

"Oh, sure, why didn't I think of that?" he said. "Oh, maybe because all of this is written in a code that I am completely unfamiliar with! This is all very exact, Lieutenant, and if I screw one thing up, I could trigger a self-destruct sequence!" He laid back down with a huff, splicing a few more wires together. After a moment, he swore loudly.

"What?"

"I just started up the wrong system," he snapped. "Instead of turning off the security, I turned on the alarms."

Just as he finished the sentence, a blue light high on the wall started flashing and an awful keening noise could be heard. Cooper looked over at the tablet hooked up to one of the panels and frowned. "Dr. McKay?"

"What?"

"What does this warning mean?"

He got to his feet and walked over, looking at the screen. He paled. "Oh, no. This is bad."

"_What_ is bad?"

"The leak I detected in the east wing is a type of gas. That must be what they used to power the city, although how, I have no idea." He looked at Cooper, eyes wide. "It's extremely toxic. Even low levels can do some damage to the body."

Her hand smacked her radio. "Teyla, Ronon, get back to the main room now, that's an order! The room you went to inspect is full of toxic gas!" She waited a moment, her heart threatening to stop when she didn't get an answer.

"Right away, Lieutenant," came Teyla's voice, as well as a round of coughing. "We have only just discovered the gas ourselves."

"Is there any way to seal the area off?"

"Not without activating the technology," Ronon said.

She sighed. "Doesn't matter, we should be far enough away. Get back here." She let go of the radio and put her face in her hands. Every move she made seemed to be a step closer to killing everyone.


	9. Chapter 9

Cooper rubbed at her temples, her head leaning back against the wall. She was immensely tired, but had no inclination to sleep. After a moment, she felt a presence at her side.

"I hope you do not mind if I join you, Lieutenant," Teyla said softly.

She shook her head. "No, not at all. Are you feeling alright?"

The Athosian smiled slightly. "Yes, I am fine. I told you, we were only in the presence of the gas for a few moments before you called us back."

"That's good. I can barely handle one disabled person, I don't want to imagine what would happen if I had three."

"On the contrary, Lieutenant, I think you have faired rather well," she said gently. "It is not easy to take control in these situations, and even more difficult to know what is wise and what is not. None of us knows the dangers lurking in these halls."

Cooper nodded. "I know. Still, I'd rather we all got out of this alive."

Teyla frowned, then looked at her companion. "Am I correct in thinking that this is not the first time you have been trapped somewhere?"

She sighed, hearing her breath start to shake. "No, it's not."

She waited a moment, then said, "We having nothing more to do here. Would you like to talk about your experience?"

Cooper wanted to say no. She wanted to pretend everything was fine and that she'd put the past behind her, but that wasn't the case. She'd had nightmares about the NI7 mission, and now the nightmare had come alive. "It was a mission I had when I was stationed on Earth." Her voice sounded forced, a little too loud. "We were on a desert planet. It was supposed to be a quick mission, just to retrieve something from the people that SG1 had pursuaded them to give us. We ended up getting caught in a civil war. More of a rebellion, really." She fiddled with a piece of hair that had come loose from her bun. "We were trapped within the city walls and had to pick a side or get killed in the crossfire. My leader wanted us to back the government so that we could sustain our political ties, but I convinced him to fight for the people. I told him I thought they were going to win, so the political ties would be meaningless if we backed the loser. I wasn't completely honest, I just knew the government was cruel and I wanted them gone almost as much as the natives did."

"Did you win?" Teyla asked, her voice quiet.

Cooper nodded. "We were there for a month fighting this thing, unable to get word to the SGC. For a scary week toward the end, I thought we weren't going to make it. But we pulled through. Lost half my team in the process and got a crap load of PTSD out of it, but I gained some credibility and our ties with the people are stronger than ever."

"That does not sound so hopeless," Teyla said encouragingly.

She closed her eyes. "My leader died there. I wasn't fast enough to get him out of the way and he took some fire. He appointed me the new leader then and that's when we started losing battles. It seems like no matter what I do, when I get put in charge, I start making all the wrong decisions."

The Athosian rested a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Perhaps you must take more time to think, Lieutenant. Or perhaps you were not made to lead. Some are not. Sometimes it helps to rely on the advice of others. To be a leader does not mean you must bear your burdens alone."

"But people are looking to me for direction. What will they think if I'm asking questions like I don't know what to do?"

"Someone will be willing to give you their opinions," Teyla promised. "It is better to first listen to your peers and then make a decision rather than to force the entirety of the decision upon yourself."

She took a deep breath. "Okay. Thank you, Teyla."

"I am here if ever you need to talk."

Cooper patted her shoulder, then rose and checked once again on Sheppard. He hadn't stirred since the last bout of consciousness, but the amount of sweat seemed to be increasing. She checked and, yes, he was developing a fever. Tearing a strip of fabric from her t-shirt, she soaked it in as much water as she dared and began trying to cool his forehead. "It was your stupid fault," she muttered, and though it was meant as a bit of a joke, she still felt a slight sense of release.

"Okay, this isn't working!" cried Rodney's raised voice.

Cooper sighed and stood. "What's the problem?"

"What isn't a problem? Nothing I've been attempting is working, we've been stuck down here for who knows how long, toxic gas could come leaking in here at any minute, and I'm starving!" He sat down heavily at a panel, looking like an upset child. But, now that the lieutenant looked, she could see something less shallow in his eyes, a genuine pain at being unable to get his team to safety.

She took her two remaining power bars out of her pocket and wordlessly slid them over. He took them with only slight hesitation. "Have you tried tricking the system?"

"Yes, I've tried that, several times," he said mournfully. "I've tried making it think we're Faloans, that it was never shut down, that the protocol was a virus, and nothing works."

"What would you do if this was Atlantis?"

He looked at her, his mouth full of power bar. "What?"

"The tech works like the stuff in our city. Responding to thought and a specific gene and so forth. We don't really know the layout of this place except for some brief schematics, but we do know Atlantis." She leaned forward on the console, feeling that maybe her idea was completely stupid. "I was just thinking that since the cities were so similar in nature, you could model your actions here off of how you treat problems back home."

He straightened up slowly, an amazed, distant look coming into his eyes. "That could work. That actually makes sense, why didn't I think of that? Yes, most of the same basic principles apply, except that I can normally crack the programming code in Atlantis."

She shrugged. "That's what you have me for."

"Maybe I don't have to fool it. Maybe I can shut it off, I just have to dive in and find the original code."

"You didn't try that before?" Ronon asked skeptically.

"Of course I tried it before, I just didn't know where to look. Now I do." He tore open the second power bar, reaching for the tablet and beginning to type madly away.


	10. Chapter 10

It was another hour before Rodney even came close.

He claimed he could have done it in all of ten minutes, but he had to have Cooper try to find the files even though he was the only one who really knew what they were looking for. It was one of the hardest things he'd ever tried to do, since trying to operate with this sort of language was the equivalent of operating blind. Nearly all of this was guesswork, and the lieutenant's insistence that the language was highly specific did nothing for his jangled nerves.

He was on the verge of a breakthrough when she gasped. "Colonel!"

"Hey, wait!" he cried as she rose from her chair and dashed to Sheppard's side. "We're not done!"

"You're so close, just finish it off!" she called over her shoulder.

Teyla was on Sheppard's other side, stroking his face with the damp cloth. "We out yet?" he mumbled.

Cooper didn't like how pale he was, or the shadows under his eyes. "No, sir, but we're close. Dr. McKay is about to disable the security system."

"Maybe, _maybe_."

"Told you he would," Sheppard said.

"Are you still in pain?" she asked.

He closed his eyes and gave a tiny, jerky nod. "Yeah, but I'm fine."

Cooper had seen few people further from fine. "Where does it hurt the most?"

"Head and chest."

Teyla had already uncapped the water bottle and began giving him a drink. "Thanks, Teyla," he murmured.

"You are welcome, Colonel. Is there anything I can do?"

"Just... don't worry." He was out again.

Cooper's breath hitched, but only slightly. "McKay, you'd better be almost done over there!"

"Just two more seconds, please, this is a very delicate process and - No! No, no, no, no, don't do that!"

Her heart plummeted and she ran to his side. "What?"

He was staring at the screen in shock. "It just completely locked me out of the system! I can't get back in!"

She turned away, pushing a hand through her hair and forcing down the panic. So close. They were so close, and now so far. Sheppard was in trouble, they needed a way out now. "Is there no other way to turn this off?"

"No, not - well, there is one way."

"What? Just tell me!"

"It's a manual override, but I can't do it here!" he said loudly. "The only place I can tell that has the equipment needed is in the east wing!"

Her shoulders sagged. "Where the toxic gas is."

He nodded. "Now you see why I didn't tell you before."

She bit her lip, looking around the room. "Alright. How long will the override take?"

"Shouldn't take more than five minutes. Ten, if you're not me. But that's way too long to be exposed to that - what are you doing?"

"Keep your radio on," she said, carefully retrieving her jacket from behind Sheppard's head. "I'm going to need you to walk me through it."

"What? Are you nuts?"

"Lieutenant, perhaps this is ill-advised," Teyla said firmly, touching the woman's arm.

"I don't see how else we're getting out of here," Cooper said, pleased that her voice didn't shake even though her legs felt like jelly.

Teyla set her jaw. "You do not owe us your life. We will find another way."

"There isn't another way. McKay is locked out of the system. And if Colonel Sheppard doesn't get help fast, he's not gonna last much longer." Tears burned her eyes and she turned away so no one would see. "I'll be back in ten minutes."

"Lieutenant, please-"

"Teyla, I'll be fine," she said, hoping it wasn't totally a lie. "I won't be exposed that long, and I can use my jacket as an air filter."

A laugh exploded out of Rodney, something sounding halfway insane. "You think _that's_ going to help?"

"Just walk me through it, McKay," she said loudly, walking towards the door. Ronon stood in her way, arms crossed. "Come on, I can't hope to get past you."

He stared at her, as though he was passing final judgement upon her. She was afraid he wasn't going to move. _Too young_, he'd said. Would he really stop her? Try to take her place? She'd never be able to live with that. Leaders didn't let their subordinates sacrifice themselves. "Good luck," he rumbled finally, stepping to the side.

"Ronon, you can't let her go," Teyla said as Cooper breathed a private sigh of relief.

"Sheppard's hurt. We've run out of options." He nodded at the lieutenant. "See you in ten minutes."

She swallowed, but nodded and hurried out of the room. "Alright, where am I going?" she asked through her radio.

It took a moment, but Rodney finally answered her. "You're going to take a left down the first hallway and go straight to the end, then take a right. Oh, god, why am I even helping you do this?"

"Because I can't do it on my own. Stop whining and just tell me what to do," she snapped. If one more person discouraged her, she might just turn around and listen. That wasn't an option. Sheppard was depending on this.

She could smell the gas before she got into the hallway. It was foul, definitely smelling toxic, and she held the jacket in front of her nose. Hopefully the thick, layered material would buy her a little more time than if she simply had nothing.

"There should be a panel in the wall to your left. Open it."

She neared the end of the second hallway and found the panel he described. The gas was visible here, so she kept her inhales short and exhales long. "Okay, it's open."

"What do you see?"

"A hell of a lot of wires."

"Yes, okay, any blue ones?"

She looked. "Yeah. There's a bunch of them grouped together."

"Okay, are there any yellow?"

"Yeah, there's, like, two."

"I was afraid of that. I'm not sure which one is the one you need."

"Fine, I'll just mess with both and see what happens."

"No! One of them might do some serious damage!"

Her eyes were starting to burn. "McKay, just tell me what to do."

She could hear his breathing, like he was starting to hyperventilate. "Okay, okay. Find the three blue wires furthest to the left and cut them."

She tied the sleeves of the jacket around her head, pulled out her standard-issue wire cutters, and set to work.

"Slowly!" he squeaked before she'd even cut the first one. "Cut them slowly, one at a time."

"If there's something you need me to do, tell me _before_ I do it."

"This is a lot of pressure, okay? You try directing someone to cut wires you can't see before they die of toxic gas inhalation!"

"_Rodney_."

"Have you cut the wires?"

"Yes." Her head was starting to swim.

"Okay, okay, uh, now you have to cut one of the yellow wires. But be careful. The one you want should be sort of twined with an orange wire. At least, it would be in Atlantis."

The cutters slipped from her hand and she dropped a little harder than she meant to trying to retrieve them. She was overcome with a round of coughing, aware that the heavy inhales were sheering minutes off her time.

"Lieutenant?" came Rodney's panicked voice.

"I'm here," she said, but her tone was strained. Her hand shaking, she reached forward and miraculously managed to snip the right wire. "It's cut.

"Okay, good, alright, take the ends of the three blue wires and try to feed them into the yellow. It only needs to be done for a second and then you can go."

"McKay, will this cause a spark?" she asked.

"Yes, probably, why?"

"Is this gas flammable?"

A pause, then, "No. No, not that flammable. You should be safe."

She exhaled. "Only one way to find out." She pinched together the ends of the three blue wires, then, slowly, carefully, she brought them to meet the yellow.

There was a spark. It burned the tips of her fingers, but, thankfully, no explosions erupted. She could hear whooping in her radio, but it sounded distant to her ears. She pushed away from the wall and began stumbling down the hallway, insanely dizzy and lightheaded.

She wasn't very aware of how she got back to the main room. She just registered that it was a lot brighter than she remembered, and then collapsed.


	11. Chapter 11

Cooper was awake before she opened her eyes. She heard people talking softly, something beeping. At least she didn't feel dizzy anymore - it had started to make her nauseous. Her eyelids fluttered open and for a moment she was confused. Then she concluded that she must be in the infirmary. She reached up and felt a tube feeding into her nose and a needle stuck in her arm.

"Hello," said a pleasant Scottish voice near the foot of her bed.

She stared at him for a moment. "Hi."

"I'm Dr. Beckett. I understand you're new here," he said with a slight smile.

She could only manage a nod.

"Well, you seem to be fitting in with Colonel Sheppard's team pretty well. Near-death experiences and all that. Caused a bit of a stir with the rest of us."

At the mention of Sheppard's name, she immediately began looking around. "Where...?"

"He's asleep, love. He suffered from a concussion and a bit of electrocution, but he's seen worse. He'll be alright." His kind face grew serious. "Although, if you had been down there another hour or more, he might not have. I think he owes you a big thanks."

"And McKay," she said distractedly.

"Aye, him, too. But you need to rest up a bit, as well," he told her. "You had a lot of toxicity in your system, took a lot to get you stable again. You should be fine, if have a bit of a slight cough for a few weeks. That's regular check-ups for you, young lady."

She nodded, then watched as Teyla entered the room, looking clean and refreshed. The Athosian smiled upon seeing the woman awake. "Lieutenant, I am glad that you are still with us."

"Yeah, me, too." She shifted slightly on the bed, still feeling out of it. "What happened?"

"The entrance opened up once you crossed the wires, and Major Lorne's team came down to help us," she said. "You returned just as he was coming down the ladder. He carried you back up, and then a medical team was called down to retrieve Colonel Sheppard. Your condition was very worrying for a few days."

"Days?"

"Aye. I think you're going to get use to missing out on time, if you continue with this lot," Dr. Beckett said dryly.

"But, fortunately, the city is now open to us," Teyla continued. "Larger research teams have gone down and were able to bring power to most of the tunnels and seal off the leaking one. It seems we may have found another asset."

"Good," Cooper said, leaning back into her pillows. "I would hate for all that to have been for nothing."

"Get some rest, Lieutenant. You've certainly earned it," Beckett said.

Teyla stepped forward, placed her hands on Cooper's shoulders, then tilted her head forward. Their foreheads touched, and Cooper felt the gesture was unexpectedly intimate.

"Sleep, Lieutenant. You have done enough."

. . .

Sheppard found her again about a week after the mission. She was standing on the balcony, staring out over the city as she had been the day he introduced her to his team. "Looks a little lonely out here," he said, standing next to her.

"Hey, Colonel."

He gave her a sidelong look. "If you're going to use 'hey,' don't call me Colonel. If you're going to use 'Colonel,' don't say 'hey.'"

She grinned slightly. "Sorry. I'm a little distracted."

He frowned. "You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, it's just... well, when you put your life on the line, you need a little time to get your thoughts back in order."

He nodded, leaning against the railing. "Yeah, I know the feeling."

"How are you holding up?"

"Me? I'm great. Thanks, by the way. For putting your life on the line." He looked at her seriously. "I'll do my best to make sure it doesn't happen again, but..."

She shook her head. "That's not a possibility, sir. Not here. You came for research and found yourselves fighting a war. Pegasus is dangerous; I wouldn't have signed on if I thought I couldn't handle it."

"Well, for what it's worth, I thought you handled it beautifully."

"Sir, you were unconscious for most of it."

"Yeah, so? I was awake sometimes, and I liked what I saw." He shifted his weight to the other foot. "Which is why, if you so choose, I'd welcome you as a permanent member of the team. You showed some real determination down in that hole and I could use that."

She swallowed, looking down at her hands. "Is it alright if I think about it?"

He nodded. "Sure, take your time. I just want you to know the offer's out there." He pushed away from the railing, turning to go back inside. "You should sit with us at dinner."

"I'll do that."

He smiled to himself. All the right people seemed to come to him. The members of his team always came through, always rose to the occasion. They were flexible, bending to the disasters that frequently befell them, but not breaking. Cooper had bent, and she'd been accepted. He was ready to see what else she could bring to the table.

. . .

**A/N I think I'm going to be posting a series involving this OC, so be on the lookout for that. I've already completed several installations, so I might as well.**

**Hope you enjoyed the story! I love reading the reviews from everybody!**


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